Re: Not accurate feedback

karoleec · ‎10-02-2020

Hi everyone!

I am wondering if ever happened to any of you that you received feedback that you felt was not accurate and if/how you dealt with it? Whether you expected good feedback and got 2 stars or expected 5 and got 4. I am wondering because it happened to me many times and I find it very frustrating.

Just to give you an example, I worked on a project and was available 24/7 to the client, discussed everything with him, even woke up earlier than is my routine one day because he was going to send me footage to edit and needed to have it delivered by me within an hour of the delivery that morning. I went above and beyond for the client and as a result, he rated me 4 out of 5 on everything, including communication, cooperation, availability and deadline (I delivered the work 24h before the deadline).

I know that getting a star less does not seem like a big deal but it's more a matter of principle. It is frustrating if people are not able to recognise how much time and energy you are putting in their projects. It happened to me before, very similar situations in which I was rated down.

Also, I was thinking of approaching him and asking what I could have done better but as it's a long-term client and we are going to work more together in future, I am not sure it's a good idea.

What's your take on this?

ramilaquinojr · ‎10-02-2020

Hi Karolina.

This sort of thing happened to me a couple times already. It's as if some clients believe that nobody is perfect and thus nobody deserves a 5-star!

But as I get more projects and some clients explicitly refer to my past reviews, I think what is more impactful is the written review. It's more effective than the number of stars. And as you complete even more projects, the overall stats like total hours worked, total earned, etc become heavier factors.

Of course feedback (stars and written review) are always important but in the end it's the client's prerogative. What they give depends not just on our performance but also their expectations, past experiences, and even their culture! This why when looking for new jobs, I consider how the client gave past reviews. It can give insight on their work expectations and how well they appreciate good work.

If it were me, I probably won't directly ask the client what I could have done better. There are ways to determine that without asking. The review is broken down into 6 categories so you can see which aspects the client thinks are with room for improvement. Communication can also give hints. Also from my experience, the more projects I work with the same client the more liberal they become at leaving positive feedback.

deaec9b2 · ‎10-02-2020

After looking at the history of client, what I think is, he is not aware how "stars" play an important role in a freelancer profile. I'd suggest you to nicely ask to the client to update his feedback with the approperiate one. I think you should take a "chance" here.

yitwail · ‎10-02-2020

Karolina, I’ve been lucky in that only a few clients have given me unfair feedback, but when one client who gave me all 4’s wanted to rehire me, I politely declined and explained to him that 4 feedback is like a B grade in school, and I’ve always been an A student and freelancer. He then assured me he would give me 5 star feedback but I told him that would be feedback manipulation and declined for the second time. Finally, in your case you delivered work 24h before the deadline so a 4 rating on Deadlines is totally unjustified.

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"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce

feed_my_eyes · ‎10-02-2020

Kris T wrote:
After looking at the history of client, what I think is, he is not aware how "stars" play an important role in a freelancer profile. I'd suggest you to nicely ask to the client to update his feedback with the approperiate one. I think you should take a "chance" here.

Apparently the stars don't matter very much; it's the private feedback that counts, and clients can't change their private feedback once they've given it. Also, if you enable the client to change the star feedback, they could just as easily take offense at being told that their feedback was "inappropriate" and rate you even lower, so you'd be taking a risk there.